Paul Hanlin
Senior Consultant
Paul has 25 years of Merchant Acquiring experience at senior level, specialising in the setting up and leading of significant start-ups for companies and banks such as First Data. Santander and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB). He also headed up the Barclaycard Merchant Services Salesforce serving SME, Commercial and Corporate customers. He moved into payments after a decade of working in FMCG commercial roles for organisations such as The Coca-Cola Company. Paul is Dubai based.
Appointed in 2013 as GM & CEO of UAE based ADIB Merchant Services, Paul developed the core and secondary (VAS) proposition, appointed a full-service functional team while developing the necessary policies, procedures and controls to manage the business. The result of this was a successful launch in Q3, 2014, and from there a track record of growth (including through Covid) which was unmatched by competitors. He has significant experience of Value Added Services such as DCC, BNPL and POS finance while delivering an ongoing low loss ratio based on robust fraud and organisational risk management, Paul retired from ADIB in 2023 after more than 10 years at the helm of this highly regarded merchant services business.
During his time in Payments, Paul has been involved in two further Merchant Services startups working on the client side with Merchant services being outsourced (Santander) and one where he worked for the outsourced provider (First Data/HBOS). This experience is complemented by his Head of Sales position at Barclaycard Merchant Services in the UK where he was headhunted from FMCG. During his payments career Paul has had significant exposure to most industries and has won & managed accounts as diverse as Carrefour, ADNOC, UAE Ministry of Finance, MOHRE & UAE Ministry of Defence. He also has significant experience of working with and managing ISOs and PayFacs.
With a track record of growth of MSV, Revenue and Profits, Paul has got significant payment scheme exposure and had representative roles on the most senior industry committees including the APACs forum in the UK and the UBF Acquiring Forum in UAE.
Key areas of expertise include:
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Merchant Acquiring startups & ongoing general management
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Business Model definition & Strategy Development
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Integrating the acquiring proposition into the wider Bank’s offering
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Merchant Business Development and subsequent Management
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Third Party Partner Management including VAS